Where Light Meets Water features a 15’ scroll journaling a two-year portion of an extensive project focusing on the photosynthetic ingenuity of the Victoria amazonica, the world’s largest water lily from the Amazon Rainforest. From MacArthur’s first encounter with this organism in the Amazon in 1993, her work with light entered a chapter of deep engagement with photobiology and the equatorial zone of the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil. Friendships with the caboclos and river guides of the Amazon became her conduit to biologically come to understand this divine specimen, its habitat, and the underlying issues threatening the rainforest.

After five attempts, MacArthur succeeded in making a complete mold of the 5’ diameter organism. This “impression,” from one of nature’s most prolific photosynthetic achievements, will be present in the exhibition. The entirety of the project explores the bio-region of the Amazon Rainforest as one of the most rich troves of biodiversity, its consistent seasonal sunlight, and its critical role in the stabilization of global climate.

Ana MacArthur is a light and environmental artist whose installations have been exhibited internationally. For years her explorations have been driven by the urge to plumb the depths of the sun’s electromagnetic energy we call “light” and devoting this search to the interrelationship between the physics of light and a deep ecological perspective. Her interdisciplinary inquiry has yielded a range of outcomes spanning the gamut of generating work directly from sunlight to imaging with lasers. After being a key member of the Museum of Holography in New York in the 80’s, she co-founded one of the few dichromate holography labs in the world, from which she has generated much work. MacArthur has exhibited internationally and throughout the USA. Her artworks and archival documentation of her installations are in many private and public collections such as the MIT Museum, University of Nottingham, England, The Intercommunications Center, Tokyo, Japan, The Sharjah Arts Museum, United Arab Emirates, “The Creative Holography Index”, Germany, the Museum of Holography, New York City, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

LAND/ART is a collaboration exploring land-based art in New Mexico with a series of exhibitions, site-specific projects, lectures performances, tours and more. All of the events take place over six months, June through November 2009, in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Mountainair. The culminating book titled “LAND/ART New Mexico”, published by Radius Books, will be released in December 2009.